In one local authority area, a third of schools fell below the benchmark.

But the move sparked claims from one teachers' leader that the "relentless push" on the three-Rs was leading to the marginalisation of other subjects such as art, music and PE.

For the first time, schools must ensure at least six-in-10 pupils gain good results in separate reading, writing and maths assessments or face being dragged on to the government blacklist.

Government officials said schools with a “long history of underperformance” would be pulled out of local authority control and turned into academies under the leadership of a private sponsor.

The intervention is likely to lead to a sharp rise in the number of “sponsored academies” – from just 470 at the moment – despite widespread opposition from teaching unions who claim it represents a backdoor attempt to privatise the state education system.

Forced conversion has already led to protests and even strikes in other parts of the country.

But the Department for Education claimed that today’s tables showed that sponsored academies were improving at three times the rate of other schools this year.

“Schools with a long history of underperformance, and who are not stepping up to the mark, will be taken over by an academy sponsor,” a spokesman said.

“Some of the improvements seen at new sponsored primary academies are remarkable – ending years of chronic underperformance.”

David Laws, the Schools Minister, added: “We are determined to drive up standards as quickly as possible in schools where there has been stubborn under-performance for years. More ambitious floor standards lead to high expectations for all pupils – and higher standards."

According to today’s tables:

• Some 25 per cent of children – 129,000 – left primary school in July without hitting the expecting level in the three core subjects which was unchanged from 2012;

• Just over 47,000 children – 37 per cent – who were considered high-fliers at the age of seven failed to reach their potential by 11, effectively going backwards in the last few years of primary education;

• More than a quarter of pupils – 26 per cent – failed a new spelling, punctuation and grammar test set for the first time in 2013 as part of a Coalition drive to improve standards in the basics;

• The toughening up of targets led to a drop in the number of schools in which every pupil met the expected standard – from 896 last year to just 549 in 2013;

• Faith schools dramatically outperformed their non-denominational peers, with some six-in-10 of the best-performers nationally being linked to the church;

• Fox Primary in west London was the top school after gaining the highest average points score in England, with three-quarters of pupils reaching the standards expected of the average 14-year-old;

• Some 25 schools had their results annulled because of cheating by teachers or pupils, including the primary that topped the 2012 tables, Newton Farm in north London;

• Poole was the worst-performing local authority, with a third of its schools below government floor targets, followed by Derby (17 per cent), Bradford (16 per cent) and Suffolk (14 per cent).

All schools are supposed to ensure that 60 per cent of pupils gain at least “Level 4” in formal reading and maths tests, combined with an informal teacher assessment of children’s writing abilities.

This means they can start to use grammatically complex sentences, good spelling and joined up handwriting in English. In maths, they should multiply and divide whole numbers by 10 or 100 and be able to use simple fractions and percentages.

In the past, reading and writing scores were combined to form a generic English grade, meaning that poor performance in one discipline could be propped up by higher standards in the other.

But for the first time in 2013, all schools must gain at least 60 per cent in all three disciplines. The spelling and grammar test result is reported separately.

This year, 767 schools were below the floor target, up from 521 under the more lenient system in 2012.

But the DfE said the number would have stood at 834 last year if the tougher benchmark had been in place 12 months ago.

A spokesman added: “This government brought in higher primary school floor targets with one aim in mind – to drive up standards with immediate effect to end years of entrenched failure.

“Schools respond to this challenge. The floor standards we introduced were tougher and performance is improving.”

Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said: “It is not surprising that some schools have fallen below the government's new floor standards for primaries, as they now have much tougher targets to achieve.

“We agree that it is vital for schools to focus on reading, writing and maths, but in the relentless push to get 60 per cent of students to Level 4 in these subjects, other important areas of the curriculum such as art, music and PE get sidelined.

"Primary education should not be solely about getting children ‘secondary school ready’.”